Search Results: Authors starting with P from Book Nook

One of The New York Times's 100 notable books of 2021"[George Packer's] account of America's decline into destructive tribalism is always illuminating and often dazzling." ―William Galston, The Washington PostAcclaimed National Book Award-winning author George Packer diagnoses America's descent into a failed state, and envisions a path toward overcoming our injustices, paralyses, and dividesIn the year 2020, Americans suffered one rude blow after another to their health, livelihoods, and collective self-esteem. A ruthless pandemic, an inept and malign government response, polarizing protests, and an election marred by conspiracy theories left many citizens in despair about their country and its democratic experiment. With pitiless precision, the year exposed the nation's underlying conditions―discredited elites, weakened institutions, blatant inequalities―and how difficult they are to remedy.In Last Best Hope, George Packer traces the shocks back to their sources. He explores the four narratives… Read More

First edition paperback, which is in fine condition and signed and inscribed by the author. Please see photos for condition. Seller will carefully wrap book in bubble wrap, box it, and ship it with tracking.
Join author Garrett Peck as he traces the unlikely story of the Smithsonian Castle and the Seneca Quarry.
British scientist James Smithson left a fortune to the country he so admired but had never visited. His gift founded the Smithsonian Institution and built the Smithsonian Castle. Today, the castle's distinct Romanesque facade glows warmly against the cool marble that dominates the National Mall. Yet the story of the stones is just as remarkable as that of the building that they grace. It was a boom-bust ride for the Seneca Quarry--the source of the red sandstone. The quarry saw its first developer die, filed for bankruptcy twice, suffered through floods and contributed to a national scandal that embarrassed the Grant presidency and helped bring down the Freedman's Bank. This is the untold… Read More

First edition paperback, which is in fine condition and signed and inscribed by the author. Please see photos for condition. Seller will carefully wrap book in bubble wrap, box it, and ship it with tracking.
Imagine the jubilation of thirsty citizens in 1796 when the Washington Brewery--the city's first brewery--opened. Yet the English-style ales produced by the early breweries in the capital and in nearby Arlington and Alexandria sat heavy on the tongue in the oppressive Potomac summers. By the 1850s, an influx of German immigrants gave a frosty reprieve to their new home in the form of light but flavorful lagers. Brewer barons like Christian Heurich and Albert Carry dominated the taps of city saloons until production ground to a halt with the dry days of Prohibition. Only Heurich survived, and when the venerable institution closed in 1956, Washington, D.C., was without a brewery for fifty-five years. Author and beer scholar Garrett Peck taps this high-gravity history while introducing readers to the… Read More

First edition hardcover, which is in fine condition and signed and inscribed by the author. Please see photos for condition. Seller will carefully wrap book in bubble wrap, box it, and ship it with tracking.
The great Potomac River begins in the Alleghenies and flows 383 miles through some of America's most historic lands before emptying into the Chesapeake Bay. The course of the river drove the development of the region and the path of a young republic. Maryland's first Catholic settlers came to its banks in 1634 and George Washington helped settle the new capitol on its shores. During the Civil War the river divided North and South, and it witnessed John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry and the bloody Battle of Antietam. Author Garrett Peck leads readers on a journey down the Potomac, from its first fount at Fairfax Stone in West Virginia to its mouth at Point Lookout in Maryland. Combining history with recreation, Peck has written an indispensable guide to the nation's river.

First edition paperback, which is in fine condition and signed and inscribed by the author. Please see photos for condition. Seller will carefully wrap book in bubble wrap, box it, and ship it with tracking.In 1929, it was estimated that every week bootleggers brought twenty-two thousand gallons of whiskey, moonshine and other spirits into Washington, D.C.'s three thousand speakeasies. H.L. Mencken called it the thirteen awful years, "? though it was sixteen for the District. Nevertheless, the bathtub gin, swilling capital dwellers made the most of Prohibition. Author Garrett Peck crafts a rollicking history brimming with stories of vice, topped off with vintage cocktail recipes and garnished with a walking tour of former speakeasies. Join Peck as he explores an underground city ruled not by organized crime but by amateur bootleggers, where publicly teetotaling congressmen could get a stiff drink behind House office doors and the African American community of U Street was humming with a new sound… Read More

First edition paperback which is in fine condition and signed and inscribed by the author. Please see photos for condition. Seller will carefully wrap book in bubble wrap, box it, and ship it with tracking.
Sixteen stories of capital crimes and misdemeanors—the basis for the film directed by George Pelecanos, producer and writer of The Wire.Mystery sensation Pelecanos pens the lead story and edits this groundbreaking collection of stories detailing the seedy underside of the nation's capital. This is not an anthology of ill-conceived and inauthentic political thrillers. Instead, in D.C. Noir, pimps, whores, gangsters, and con-men run rampant in zones of this city that most never hear about.This anthology includes brand new stories by George Pelecanos, James Grady, Kenji Jasper, Jim Beane, Jabari Asim, Ruben Castaneda, James Patton, Norman Kelley, Jennifer Howard, Richard Currey, Lester Irby, and others."[Grady's] 'The Bottom Line' is a tour de force of narrative bravado. A story of double-dealing on… Read More

First edition hardcover, which is in fine condition and signed and inscribed by the author. Please see photos for condition. Seller will carefully wrap book in bubble wrap, box it, and ship it with tracking.Learn How To Get Everything You Want And More In The Ultimate Book On The Not-So-Gentle Art Of Persuasion From Don Peppers, Pitchman Extraordinaire And Author Of The One-To-One Future (46,000 Sold).In business, a pitch is a closed-end, winner-take-all contest. It involves one prospective customer and two or more hopeful suppliers, each struggling to defeat the others and win the account. Sometimes the business is won on the basis of price, but often -- especially where professional services are concerned -- the determining factor is intangible. Who, the client wants to know, will fight hardest for me in court, come up with the most inspired ad campaign, bring my products to the most new markets?In Life's A Pitch... And Then You Buy, Don Peppers shows us how to craft a pitch that is… Read More

First edition paperback, which is in fine condition and signed and inscribed by the author. Please see photos for condition. Seller will carefully wrap book in bubble wrap, box it, and ship it with tracking.
The Folger Shakespeare Library is the world's largest repository of Shakespeareana and English Renaissance books, manuscripts, and objects d'art. Nobody alive knows the library better than Special Police Officer Lt. Norman Blalock; he's been guarding it for 25 years. That's why he is the perfect candidate to pull off an inside job and heist from the library's underground bank vault a priceless artifact that can rock the foundation of English Literature...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Small Great Things and The Book of Two Ways comes "a powerfully evocative story of resilience and the triumph of the human spirit" (Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six)

Rights sold to Netflix for adaptation as a feature film • Named one of the best books of the year by She Reads

Diana O'Toole is perfectly on track. She will be married by thirty, done having kids by thirty-five, and move out to the New York City suburbs, all while climbing the professional ladder in the cutthroat art auction world. She's an associate specialist at Sotheby's now, but her boss has hinted at a promotion if she can close a deal with a high-profile client. She's not engaged just yet, but she knows her boyfriend, Finn, a surgical resident, is about to propose on their romantic getaway to the Galápagos—days before her thirtieth birthday. Right on time.

But then a virus that felt worlds away has appeared in the… Read More

First edition, first printing hardcover, which is in fine condition and signed and inscribed by the author. There are very slight signs of shelf wear on the dust cover (see photos). Seller will carefully wrap book in bubble wrap, box it, and ship it with tracking.
Released to coincide with the centennial of the National Park Service this new and comprehensive illustrated history of the White House grounds is presented in four parts: I: An introduction to the site with a discussion of the relationship between the house and its landscape. II: A geographical survey of the grounds and gardens beginning with the North and continuing to the East, South, and West. III: The story of how the gardens have been used through time including public access; first family recreation and entertaining; agricultural uses; and wartime uses, such as the troop encampment during the Civil War. And IV: A look at what has been grown on the grounds including the history of the greenhouses, flowers and ornamental gardening, and… Read More

First edition softcover, which is in as new condition and signed by the author. Please see photos for condition. Seller will include commemorative Easter egg from 2018 White House Easter Egg Roll with book. Seller will carefully wrap book and egg in bubble wrap, box them, and ship them with tracking.There could not be a more perfect spot in Washington, D.C., to enjoy the time-honored Easter Egg Roll tradition than the rolling lawns of the president's backyard. With more than seventy newly commissioned whimsical illustrations that bring the event to life, this new history of the White House Easter Egg Roll reveals how each administration from Rutherford B. Hayes through Donald J. Trump has staged the annual event. Written by Jonathan Pliska Illustrated by John Hutton

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A "high-octane, no-bullshit" (The New Republic) memoir about re-energizing our politics and standing up to corporate America—while carting three kids around in a minivan."Just like her whiteboard schoolings of CEOs, this book showcases Katie's ability to entertain while making the inner workings of Congress more accessible than ever before."—Julia Louis-DreyfusNever having run for office before, Katie Porter charted a new path in 2018 when she was elected to Congress as a Democrat in historically conservative Orange County, California. Underestimated as a single mom and chided for her progressive values, Katie defied expectations. Then, using her signature whiteboard, she began to take CEOs and corrupt government officials to task in Congressional hearings. The videos went viral, introducing Americans to her no-bullshit style, and making her a coveted guest on cable news and late-night television. I SWEAR: Politics Is Messier Than My Minivan is a witty, down-to-earth… Read More

Paperback, which is in as new condition. Please see photos for condition. Seller will carefully wrap book in bubble wrap and ship it with tracking.America has gone Hamilton crazy. Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony-winning musical has spawned sold-out performances, a triple platinum cast album, and a score so catchy that it is being used to teach U.S. history in classrooms across the country. But just how historically accurate is Hamilton? And how is the show itself making history?Historians on Hamilton brings together a collection of top scholars to explain the Hamilton phenomenon and explore what it might mean for our understanding of America's history. The contributors examine what the musical got right, what it got wrong, and why it matters. Does Hamilton's hip-hop take on the Founding Fathers misrepresent our nation's past, or does it offer a bold positive vision for our nation's future? Can a musical so unabashedly contemporary and deliberately anachronistic still communicate historical truths about… Read More

First edition paperback, which is in fine condition and signed and inscribed by the author. Please see photos for condition. Seller will carefully wrap book in bubble wrap, box it, and ship it with tracking.
When the first shots of the Civil War were fired in 1861, Washington, D.C., was a small, essentially Southern city. The capital rapidly transformed as it prepared for invasion--army camps sprung up in Foggy Bottom, the Navy Yard on Anacostia was a beehive of activity and even the Capitol was pressed into service as a barracks. Local citizens and government officials struggled to accommodate the fugitive slaves and troops that crowded into the city. From the story of one of the first African American army surgeons, Dr. Alexander Augusta, to the tireless efforts of Clara Barton, historian Lucinda Prout Janke renders an intimate portrait of a community on the front lines of war. Join Janke as she guides readers through the changing landscape of a capital besieged.

In Culture, acclaimed author, professor, and public intellectual Martin Puchner takes us on a breakneck tour through pivotal moments in world history, providing a global introduction to the arts and humanities in one engaging volume.

What good are the arts? Why should we care about the past? For millennia, humanity has sought to understand and transmit to future generations not just the "know-how" of life, but the "know-why"―the meaning and purpose of our existence, as expressed in art, architecture, religion, and philosophy. This crucial passing down of knowledge has required the radical integration of insights from the past and from other cultures. In Culture, acclaimed author, professor, and public intellectual Martin Puchner takes us on a breakneck tour through pivotal moments in world history, providing a global introduction to the arts and humanities in one engaging volume.

From Nefertiti's lost city to the plays of Wole Soyinka; from the theaters of ancient Greece to Chinese travel journals… Read More